566 



Monthly Review of Lileralure, 



i:nov. 



long been pkuning. Though themselves 

 aware of the concentrating of the English 

 and Portuguese forces, and their advance, 



they kept Soult in ignorance of it their 



own scheme was to make a truce with the 

 English, choose a new chief, march to Paris, 

 and force Napoleon to a change of system. 

 The project was baffled, but it embarrassed 

 Soult, and forced him to give way, for he 

 could get no orders executed. 



Soult thus routed. Sir Arthur '^Vellesley 

 returned to the south, and lost not a mo- 

 ment in directing his march along the val- 

 ley of the Tagus, in fuU confidence, in 

 union with Cuesta, of bringing Victor to 

 action, before Soult, at all events, could re- 

 cover himself. But he seems not to have 

 correctly calculated Soult's activity ; and of 

 the thorough inefficiency of the Spaniards he 

 had no suspicions wliatever. Of this, how- 

 ever, he was soon destined to be convinced. 

 The^battle of Talavera was fought bravely 

 and skilfully,' but at a great sacrifice of 

 life, and with little or no utility ; for the 

 want of steady co-operation on the part of 

 the Spaniards prevented the victory from 

 being so complete as it might have been. 

 The English commander gained no ground. 

 He could not advance with safety, for 

 Victor was joined by Jourdain and Sebas- 

 tiani ; and Soult, with Ney, was rapidly 

 advancing to cut off his retreat, and he was 

 all but surprised. Time was just given 

 him to cross the Tagus at Arzobisbo, and 

 thus escape inevitable destruction ; for the 

 French troops were on the very point of 

 uniting with an overwhelming force of 

 100,000. The wounded were left, by the 

 dastardly if not treacherous conduct of the 

 Spaniards, in the hands of the enemy, who, 

 however treated them generously. The 

 escape of the British anny was most critical. 

 The commander had placed himself in a 

 position, from which he escaped by a com- 

 bination of circumstances upon which no 

 man could have calculated. Colonel Napier 

 sums up the evidence with great judgment, 

 and hesitates not to pronounce the affair a 

 blunder on the part of the great Captain. 

 But experience was not lost upon him ; it 

 taught hmi caution — he never made a simi- 

 lar blunder. It taught liim also to estimate 

 duly the Spaniards, and he trusted them no 

 more. " I have fished in many troubled 

 waters," he observed, " but Spanish waters 

 I will never try again;" and he kept his 

 word. 



The military details are often too parti- 

 cularizing to please the general reader ; but 

 every body must be pleased with the search- 

 ing inquiries he makes into the causes of 

 events — many of them before very unsatis- 

 factorily accounted for. The full and free 

 estimate he draws up of the conduct of all 

 —the commander in the field, and the 

 cabinet at home, is equally agreeable and 

 satisfactory. Nothing so well explains the 

 general failure on the part of the French 

 .igainst an enemy like the Spaniards, im- 



united, unskilful, and midiscipllned, as the 

 jealousies and dissatisfactions of the French 

 marshals. St. Cyr thought himself sacri- 

 ficed by Napoleon — Ney did not like being 

 placed under Soult, and Victor as little liked 

 being controlled by Jourdain and the king. 

 Could Napoleon, this campaign, have been 

 present, his energy and vehemence, and 

 controlling power — the only person capable 

 of forcing all to act in union — he would 

 have settled the matter decisively ; and, on 

 the other hand, had VVellesley been fur- 

 nished with 80,000, he might have pushed 

 forward into Spain, beaten the French in 

 detail, and driven them out of the country. i 

 But our blessed cabinet at home split the 

 force at command by dispatching 40,000 to 

 Walclieren, and 20,000 to Sicily, and, all 

 alike, at every point, were thus made inef- 

 fectual. 



The Borderers, by the Axithor of the 

 Spy, Red Rover, ^c, 3 vols., 1829 — Mr. 

 Cooper's new volumes give as much history 

 as romance, and history that runs deep into 

 American, or, at least, New England anti- 

 quities. The facts, for the main incidents 

 are matters of family tradition, go back 150 

 years, within fifty, that is, of the very first 

 settlers of New England, handed down from 

 generation to generation, and, finally com- 

 municated to the author by a direct de- 

 scendant, now a religious teacher in Penn- 

 sylvania, " one who can point to a line of 

 ancestors, whose origin is lost in the ob- 

 scurity of time. You," says he, addressing 

 his reverend friend with all the humility 

 that becomes a novus homo, " you are truly 

 an American. We, of a brief century or 

 two, must appear in your eyes little more 

 than denizens quite recently admitted to the 

 privilege of a residence." 



The scene of the new story is a " clear- 

 ing" in the depths of the forests that co- 

 vered the vale of the Connecticut, and the 

 period of action from 1C65 to 1675. The 

 present states of Connecticut, INIassachusetts, 

 and Rhode Island, it is known, were occu- 

 pied, before the English settlements, by four 

 great nations, bearing the uncouth names of 

 Massachusetts. M'ampanoags, Narragan- 

 setts, and Piquods — tlie first three covering 

 the hunting grounds along the shores, and 

 the Piquods stretching to the west of aU them. 

 With the Blassachusetts the story has no- 

 thing to do ; but a few words relative to the 

 other three is essential to the grasp of it. 

 The Piquods, though the most remote, were 

 the first to come in fierce conflict with the 

 settlers ; but luckily neither the cunning 

 nor the ferocity of Indians, was a match for 

 English inteUigence, and the Piquods, 

 thoroughly broken, fell into the rank of 

 allies and auxiliaries, and contributed to the 

 ruin or reduction of others. The Wampa- 

 noags were, from the first, on friendly terms 

 witli the settlers, partly, perhaps, from the 

 gentler disposition of Massasoit, their cliicf, 

 and in part, no doubt, from a terrible epi- i 



